Shana Cleveland, singer of La Luz is exploring her quieter/acoustic side with her latest project Shana Cleveland & The Sandcastles. The Seattle-based singer is currently on tour for her upcoming Oh Man, Cover the Ground
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La Luz's frontwoman Shana Cleveland has a new music project called Shana Cleveland & the Sandcastles. The band's first official tour is taking place right now, and they stopped by Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater in Minneapolis last night. This was a Cedar Cultural Center show booking, as part of their 26th Season.

Battlerat

Opening up the show was local band Battlerat, lead by singer/pianist Celeste Heule. She actually spent their entire 40-min set with her back turned to the audience (because of the placement of the piano)... except for a rare musical saw action in the middle of "Sandfeathers".

Most of the songs were from their self-titled 2014 album, which is available on Coke-bottle green translucent vinyl.

According to Shana Cleveland, bandleader of Shana Cleveland & the Sandcastles, every member of her band have been to Minneapolis at some point, in other bands, but as this particular group, this was their first time in Minneapolis. They spent the day visiting Fitzgerald Theater in St Paul because Cleveland is a huge "A Prairie Home Companion" fan.

As expected with a brand new band with only one album, they practically played their entire Oh Man, Cover The Ground album, including the title track and single "Holy Rollers".

Highlight on their set was actually a weird telephone cover version of Jerry Lee Lewis song "Chantilly Lace" (partial cover) and an impromptu a cappella version of Shai's "If I Ever Fall In Love Again". Basically the band was vamping to make time for Cleveland to tune her guitar.

No encores were given, but it was not a surprise because they probably exhausted their entire song catalog.... well maybe there was a little hope that they would return to do more 90s R'n'B covers.

Shana Cleveland & the Sandcastles' album Oh Man, Cover The Ground is out now on Suicide Squeeze.

Shana Cleveland and the Sandcastles at Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater, Minneapolis (02 June 2015)

A Wolf in the Doorway is the new album from Boston's The Ballroom Thieves. The band is stopping by Minneapolis' Bryant-Lake Bowl tomorrow, Wednesday, May 13th. The venue is very, very small.
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Boston's The Ballroom Thieves just played Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater in Minneapolis last night, May 13th.
Don't let the Bowling Theater fool you, this was organized and booked by the Cedar Cultural Center, now in its 26th year.

Jake Jones

Opening up the show was local musician Jake Jones with a full backing band. We previously mentioned opened up for Mockingbird Son.

The band did a lot of songs from The Arrowhead EP, including "Jake - Mexico", "Serenity", and set closer "Cowboy Song" (which got a loud yip from a fan in the audience).
The band also threw in a brand, brand new song called "Chasing Dream", on their 30-min set.

The Ballroom Thieves, on their second appearance in Minneapolis (previously also billed at Byrant-Lake Bowl), was pleased to see that the room was full this time around. Drummer Devin Mauch, who is celebrating his birthday today (May 14th), said that they originally didn't have Minneapolis on their tour itinerary, but they made the extra effort to put the city back on their schedule. Thanks to word of mouth, there was a really good turn out for the show... especially on a Wednesday.

If you've never been to Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater, it is a small room inside a bowling alley. The unfortunate thing is if you sit near the entrance, you will often hear the pins crashing whenever someone enters or leaves the room. The bowling aspect actually inspired Mauch to advertise for the venue, trying to sell us this $30 deal of a bowling game, a bottle of wine and two entrees. The 6'4" drummer said, "If I lived here, I'd date anyone every night to take advantage of the deal!"

The majority of the songs were sung by guitarist Martin Earley, except "Bury Me Smiling", which was sung by cellist Calin Peters. According to the band, they only met her two years ago, and she said she only sang in the showers or driving or whenever she's drinking. "Those days are done!" Earley said, and so they convinced Peters to do more vocals.

Other highlight of their set included a cover of "Game of Thrones Main Theme", medley into their "Vampires" song. As a big fan of the HBO series (as are The Ballroom Thieves), I recognized the first few notes right away.

As you can see from their setlist, the majority of songs were taken from their latest album A Wolf in the Doorway. They basically played almost the entire album, leaving just two or three songs off. When they came back for the encore, which was a very brief pretend walking down the stairs that went nowhere behind the stage, they played a brand new song called "Anybody Else".

The Ballroom Thieves' A Wolf in the Doorway is out now via Blue Corn Music.